Transverse tomosynthesis on a digital simulator

The availability of digital radiographic imaging on simulators has led to the investigation of a number of new imaging possibilities, including digital linear tomography (tomosynthesis). It has been shown that a single set of projections in this case is sufficient to reconstruct images from multiple planes, including planes tilted with respect to the tube motion. The present work examines the feasibility of tomosynthetic image reconstruction in transverse planes using a CCD-based digital radiotherapy simulator with conventional isocentric rotational geometry. General transformation equations were derived to permit image reconstruction in arbitrary transverse planes. Transverse images of the skull section of the humanoid phantom have been generated using a 360 degrees gantry sweep. Bone, air, and radiographic markers are well resolved, but the image quality is poor due to the suboptimal scanning geometry available on the simulator.